Layla took Nina back into the house. Even if she wanted to leave, a carriage would not pass by the village till morning. She knew Rigs was right. If they waited that long, the likelihood of the villagers being alive would drop considerably. The best time to save them would be now.
Layla bit her lip in frustration while she continued to curse her uselessness. Honestly, she was a genius in her right. She was barely in her twenties, and she was already a powerful gold rank adventurer. Even among her party, she would have been above the others had it not been for the defective hero and the one that reeked. Even without the hero's boost, she was a real genius. However, with everything, she felt powerless.
They had lost their mother the same way. With not much time to spare, she charged into a group of generals in order to try and save a few villages that had been taken hostage. She fought bravely and bought enough time for the hostages to be evacuated. Unfortunately, fighting so many powerful beings were too much for her and eventually died. That was why she tried to stop Riggs, even though she knew he was right. It was not because she liked him or anything, it was her projecting her mother's situation unto the current situation.
…
I walked slowly through the forests behind the village with his head down. You would think I was walking without a direction, but I wasn't. [Soul Track]. It was a skill that allowed the user to visibly see the direction of the footsteps the person they were tracking had taken, allowing you to be able to follow. Unless the person you were tracking down was actively trying to cover their tracks, or he or she entered a large crowd and mixed in, it was easy to follow. You could use the higher version, [Binding Soul Tracks] which designates a specific color to the person you were tracking. The only downside was you would have to tag the person, at least discreetly, so the person does not find out. That way even if they blended into a crowd or tried to cover their tracks, you would still be able to find them.
I, however, did not need such a high skill since the footsteps I was seeing were all going towards the same direction. You might wonder why I did not just use my divinities and just whoosh and bam and end everything. That's because those were the rules. Specifically, World Rules. Any reincarnate, transmigrator or visitor, that's me, that came to a world must conform with the rules of said world.
If for example the world I was visiting used chakra, I was not allowed to use mana, in that world. That was why when plucked people were given wishes, it had to be in conjecture with the rules of the world. You want to be sent to the world of Te*n Wolf? Then you need to be a supernatural in some way. Vampire, werewolf, hybrid, fairy. It did not matter as long as it was supernatural.
Same way you could be given unlimited mana, a grimoire of unlimited spells, or all anime and manga sword styles. It would be possible because spells, swordsmen and mages were part of the world I was in. So long as it conformed to the rules, it did not matter. That was, so long as the person bringing you down was powerful enough to grant such a wish.
There were, of course, certain exceptions. For example, if the world in question was requesting for help on a serious issue. The World would be willing to bend a few rules in such a situation. Or if the person sending you down was as powerful as my old man, he could give you anything that did not conform to the World rules in exchange for something. That way the World would leave things as it was.
Then the question was, since my father was that powerful to completely ignore the World rules without even trying to compensate the World for it, why had I been using their skills the entire time? The answer was, because he was my father. The old man was not some random rogue god. He had a very high position among the council of gods. Although he could if he wanted, this was not one of those times. What was the point of getting on the bad side of a few worlds when you were powerful enough to just follow the rules without it being a bother to you? Although, what I wanted was the old man to snap his fingers and end things quickly. I knew very well he would not.
The old era of gods going about doing whatever they pleased was long gone. It did not mean they were shackled. It was better this way to manage everything. It was more like customer satisfaction. What better way to satisfy the customers than to please them? Of course, not all the gods agreed to this notion.
"The council, huh?" My mind drifted to the current council in the divine realm. A bunch of obvious cliché old gods. Before I could think any further, I came across a large clearing. In front of me were the villagers. Men, women and children. They had formed three long queues. Their gazes looked empty with smiles on their faces, but their bodies moved automatically, taking one step forward at a time. "[Sleep]". My voice echoed out, and every single one of them dropped to the floor.
Got to love weighted words. Powerful enough and you could bring ruin to a lot of things. I remember a certain clan whose specialty were weighted words. They were so terrifying that they managed to bring every single clan together to wipe them out. No one liked being controlled like that.
…
The third general of the Demon Lord's forces, Lia the seductress, had a simple, yet grand plan. She was the craftiest of the five generals and the most ambitious. While the others just blindly worshiped the demon lord, she had a much bigger desire. She wanted to be the demon lord.
The third general was a beauty. She had tried to seduce the demon lord in order to raise her rank, but she was punished instead. Her entire arm was ripped off, and as a reminder, the demon lord made sure she would never be able to regrow her arm. This caused her to be the ridicule of the other generals.